People complain about government waste, then complain more when the government gets efficient!

I don't know about the specific economics of their offset litho and digital presses, but here we switch to digital for quantities below about 5,000. I imagine that for most regions they sell fewer than 5,000 charts a year, so digital is the smart way to do it.

Wouldn't the quality of the printing of the digital charts depend on who you buy them from? Our large-format digital printers can produce more detail than our offset presses, and we can print a bigger variety of substrates. Wouldn't it be cool to have all your charts on Tyvek?

Hmmm... Maybe I should suggest to sales that we become a NOAA-certified printer...

Yes, I agree that we are spoiled, BUT, without getting into a political discustion, who made us this way?
We are a government of the people, FOR, the people. The government is not supposed to be a money making process for the benefit of a few at the top or to support the rest of the world, it is supposted to be for the benifit of WE, all the people under this government.
We the people work, pay our taxes, and elect people to run this country for the benefit of we, the people.
I, as a sailor, know that when I take my boat out that I have acknowaged that I must be competent in my abillities, knowledgable of the laws and rules governing my actions while sailing, and shall at all times manage my craft for the safety and enjoyment of ALL who share the waters with me.
I will be the first to step up a pay a few dollars extra to cover the "printing" cost for up-to-date charts IF i know that that is what it takes, but to simply take that ability out of my hands is a rather thoughless action of certain 'gubment' officials. To say that you can go down to your 'local' chart maker and get your charts is a step back in time to the 1500 and 'here be dragons'. When did he last update his data? How sharp is his printer, how smear proof his ink?
Oh, you say, print your own. I don't have a printer that will print over 8 1/2 x 14, do you? I don't carry an onboard computer, laptop, or surface, and while a chart plotter system would be wonderful it isn't in my budget this year or next or even the forseable future, the GPS was a major buy. I, like most of my sailing buddies, are NOT in the 2% or even the 10% bracket.
We sail the rivers, lakes, bays and coastal waters of the Gulf for our own pleasure and to fullfill our dreams of exploration, find new places and have fun doing it. We use our charts to resonablly, safely, go into waters unknown to us.
I guess we had better practice up using lead lines, range finders, and set dragon watches on the bow.

That's when you're going to need the Tyvek charts that I'm going to go into business selling!

I think the quality will improve with time. These on demand charts are printed on large format inkjet printers, and the price of these has been plummeting and the quality is getting much better.

I have a Canon iPF6300 sitting right behind me. It prints 24" wide by however long at 2400dpi. The quality is stunning, you have to use a good glass to even see the dots. You can pick one up for under $4,000.

As soon as the pdf's are available, it's a pretty easy process to select the charts you want, email them off, and have them printed out by custom print shops. Then you can get them printed on anything from paper to Mylar film, for just a couple of bucks.

The fact that the government is getting out of the printing business and sending this function back to private industry seems like a win all the way round.

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